Electricity theft is a problem that all electric utilities face. In fact, it is estimated that energy theft costs utilities billions of dollars annually, and these losses generally are passed along to customers in the form of higher rates. Unfortunately, electricity theft via fraud (meter tampering) or stealing (illegal connections) can also create situations that endanger lives and property.
An existing system and process for detecting energy theft includes first installing a meter at a distribution transformer. Energy theft is then detected if the energy measured at the transformer is greater than the aggregated energy reported by the electric meters installed at the different premises connected to the distribution transformer. This method is effective, but requires installation and maintenance of an extra meter for each distribution transformer.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for systems and processes that effectively detect or identify potential energy theft, without the need for additional hardware implementation beyond the hardware (e.g., electric meters) installed at customer premises.